Abstract
BackgroundMast cells promote the progression of experimental tumors and might be a valuable therapeutic target. However, the relevant clinical evidence is still controversial. This study analyzed the relationship between the distribution of mast cells and the survival of patients with colon cancer to study whether mast cells contribute to tumor progression.Materials and methodsNinety-three cases of pathologically confirmed primary cancer tissues matched with adjacent normal mucosa, metastases of regional-draining lymph nodes and regional-draining lymph nodes without metastases were collected from stage IIIB colon carcinoma patients between January 1997 and July 2004 at the Cancer Center of Sun Yat-Sen University. Tryptase-positive mast cells were counted. The relationships of the distribution of mast cells with clinicopathologic parameters and 5-year survival were analyzed.ResultsAlthough the mast cell count in the mucosa adjacent to the primary colon cancer was significantly higher than that in the stroma of the primary colon cancer, no difference in mast cell counts was observed between the stroma in lymph node metastasis and the lymph tissue adjacent to the metastasis. Additionally, the mast cell count in the regional-draining lymph node without the invasion of cancer cells was significantly higher than that in the stroma of lymph node metastasis and adjacent lymph tissue. However, none of those mast cell counts was related to 5-year survival.ConclusionAlthough mast cell count varied with location, none of the mast cell counts was related to 5-year survival, suggesting that mast cells do not contribute to the progression of stage IIIB colon cancer.
Highlights
Mast cells promote the progression of experimental tumors and might be a valuable therapeutic target
Results: the mast cell count in the mucosa adjacent to the primary colon cancer was significantly higher than that in the stroma of the primary colon cancer, no difference in mast cell counts was observed between the stroma in lymph node metastasis and the lymph tissue adjacent to the metastasis
Conclusion: mast cell count varied with location, none of the mast cell counts was related to 5-year survival, suggesting that mast cells do not contribute to the progression of stage IIIB colon cancer
Summary
Mast cells promote the progression of experimental tumors and might be a valuable therapeutic target. This study analyzed the relationship between the distribution of mast cells and the survival of patients with colon cancer to study whether mast cells contribute to tumor progression. Because c-kit inhibitors such as imatinib and sunitinib have been approved in patients with colorectal cancer, this result was not confirmed by other groups [13,14,15,16,17,18] Because these previous studies focused on the infiltration of mast cells into primary colorectal cancers and the function of mast cells might vary with their location in cancer tissue, it is reasonable to examine the distribution of mast cells and its relationship with the progression of colon cancer to identify the role of mast cells in this process. The current study examined the mast cell counts in primary and metastatic tumors, as well as regional-draining lymph nodes without metastases, to study whether mast cells contribute to the progression of colon cancer
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